South Korea's central bank forms legal advisory team to research digital currency

The central bank of South Korea has today officially formed a legal advisory group to research digital currency.

The six-member group comprises of internal and external legal experts, who will advise the Bank of Korea on legislative and amendment matters concerning central bank digital currency (CBDC) if it were to issue one.

To be sure, the Bank of Korea recently said it may not issue CBDC “in the near future” because the demand for cash still exists, but it launched a pilot program to test digital won. The program was launched in April and would run until December 2021 to identify technical and legal provisions related to CBDC.

The formation of the legal team appears to be part of the overall pilot program. The legal team would operate for a year until May 2021, and its continuity after that period would be reviewed at a later date, said the central bank.

The Bank of Korea initially hinted at researching CBDCs in December 2019. At the time, the central bank was hiring experts to study and analyze other countries’ digital currency initiatives.

Central banks around the world appear to have accelerated their digital currency research efforts. France's central bank began experimenting with digital euro in April. The European Central Bank recently said it is working on a "retail central bank digital currency." Cambodia’s central bank is also aiming to go live with a digital currency this year.